In recent years, a large number of digital home appliances are marketed. Most of such digital home appliances are usually packaged with at least one remote control. A user can manipulate each digital home appliance by using such a remote control.
Some conventional digital home appliances are packaged with a plurality of remote controls. For example, devices are known for which not only a usual remote control having buttons for enabling thorough manipulation of that device, but also a specialized remote control having a reduced number of buttons is provided. By using such a specialized remote control, because of it having fewer buttons, the user can readily select a desired function and manipulate the device.
The manufacturer of the device previously sets it so that, when a specific button on the specialized remote control is pressed, an application that is assigned to each button is activated. For example, when a LIST OF RECORDINGS button is pressed, a list-of-recordings application which shows a list of recorded programs is activated. When the list-of-recordings application is activated from the usual remote control, the user is able to utilize all functions. On the other hand, when the list-of-recordings application is activated from the specialized remote control, the user is only able to utilize functions that are manipulatable with the buttons existing on that remote control alone. The same is also true of any other function. For example, if a SKIP-30-SECONDS button does not exist on the specialized remote control, the user is not able to utilize a SKIP-30-SECONDS function when playing back a program. In another example where a DELETE button exists on the specialized remote control, the user is able to utilize a program deleting function on a list of recorded programs.
Patent Document 1 describes a reproduction apparatus provided with a plurality of remote controls. IN Patent Document 1, the reproduction apparatus switches displaying depending on whether a remote control signal is received from a first remote control or a remote control signal is received from a second remote control signal.